Bernanke: 'Reduction in the Unemployment Rate Seems Likely to Be Frustratingly Slow'

Daniel Halper

July 17, 2012 1:03 PM

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee today that "the reduction in the unemployment rate seems likely to be frustratingly slow":

"Given that growth is projected to be not much above the rate needed to absorb new entrants into the labor force," Bernanke said, "the reduction in the unemployment rate seems likely to be frustratingly slow. Indeed, the central tendency of participants' forecasts now has the unemployment rate at 7 percent or higher at the end of 2014."